diff --git a/compat/mingw.c b/compat/mingw.c
index 2839d9df6e..1a17cf6cce 100644
--- a/compat/mingw.c
+++ b/compat/mingw.c
@@ -934,7 +934,9 @@ int mingw_connect(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *sa, size_t sz)
 #undef rename
 int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 {
-	DWORD attrs;
+	DWORD attrs, gle;
+	int tries = 0;
+	static const int delay[] = { 0, 1, 10, 20, 40 };
 
 	/*
 	 * Try native rename() first to get errno right.
@@ -944,10 +946,12 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 		return 0;
 	if (errno != EEXIST)
 		return -1;
+repeat:
 	if (MoveFileEx(pold, pnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
 		return 0;
 	/* TODO: translate more errors */
-	if (GetLastError() == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
+	gle = GetLastError();
+	if (gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED &&
 	    (attrs = GetFileAttributes(pnew)) != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES) {
 		if (attrs & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) {
 			errno = EISDIR;
@@ -957,10 +961,23 @@ int mingw_rename(const char *pold, const char *pnew)
 		    SetFileAttributes(pnew, attrs & ~FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY)) {
 			if (MoveFileEx(pold, pnew, MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING))
 				return 0;
+			gle = GetLastError();
 			/* revert file attributes on failure */
 			SetFileAttributes(pnew, attrs);
 		}
 	}
+	if (tries < ARRAY_SIZE(delay) && gle == ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED) {
+		/*
+		 * We assume that some other process had the source or
+		 * destination file open at the wrong moment and retry.
+		 * In order to give the other process a higher chance to
+		 * complete its operation, we give up our time slice now.
+		 * If we have to retry again, we do sleep a bit.
+		 */
+		Sleep(delay[tries]);
+		tries++;
+		goto repeat;
+	}
 	errno = EACCES;
 	return -1;
 }